From Los Angeles to San Diego: Architecture Students Explore Built Environments Through Writing the City Course

This past fall, twenty intrepid architecture students embarked on a writer’s workshop-style seminar that aimed to further their understanding of San Diego through the research and writing of architecture criticism. Led by Lecturer Megan Groth, MArch, MSc, the Arch 330: Writing the City course teaches students how to analyze a built environment, connecting design practice with a context for how and why things are built.

“At its best, architecture criticism is a public service – a well-educated, well-informed voice that champions a high-quality built environment for all, irrespective of politics, money and power,” explains Groth. “It pulls back the curtain to explain to the public how and why a building or urban environment is built the way it is, and, in the process, it can be an important voice for positive change.”

The course began by focusing on the history, urban context and criticism of the redevelopment of Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. With funding from the Enhanced Student Faculty Interaction (ESFI) Grant, the Department of Art, Architecture + Art History and the San Diego Architecture Foundation, students took the train from Old Town Station to Los Angeles Union Station to tour the world-renowned buildings and urban landscape of Grand Avenue, a space they read about during class.

Back in San Diego, students focused their own research and writing on one recently-built piece of architecture and/or landscape architecture to produce a final 1,500-word essay of architecture criticism for a public audience. Their work was compiled into a class zine and presented at an end of the semester event hosted by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) San Diego Chapter at the Miller Hull Partnership.

“I really had no clue what to expect going into this class as an upper division architecture seminar, but it has been one of the most interesting and unique classes I’ve taken so far,” commented fourth-year student Aaron Wakefield-Carl.

Arch 330: Writing the City will be taught again this spring in San Diego before going abroad to London for Intersession 2027.